The Ego Trick (baggini, Julian) / quote 186 of 254

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The other infamous case is the Stanford Prison Experiment, in which Philip Zimbardo and his team simulated conditions in a prison with student volunteers taking on the roles of prisoners and guards. The two-week experiment was abandoned after six days, because the guards had descended into terrible cruelty, making prisoners clean out toilets with their bare hands and using fire extinguishers to hose down an insurrection. These were ordinary, decent people, turned sour by being placed in a position of power they could abuse.

Saved 23 April 2015

#experiments #power #situation #violence

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